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CityFibre Amey Contract Announcement

Edinburgh Gigabit City Construction partnership accelerates rollout of UK’s fibre future

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CityFibre has today announced an agreement with leading infrastructure provider Amey to extend its 150km network in Edinburgh to homes and businesses across the city. On completion, the state of the art communications infrastructure is expected to total over 2100km of network. The agreement with Amey is amongst CityFibre’s first strategic partnerships with construction companies as it accelerates its plans to reach 5 million homes by 2025.

CityFibre’s total investment in the project is estimated to exceed £100 million. Preparatory construction work began in November last year and Amey will now significantly expand its recruitment drive. From team leaders, site supervisors and operatives to administrators, project managers, and quantity surveyors, Amey is looking to create around 300 local jobs over the project’s lifespan. This infrastructure project will provide a direct economic impact of over £50 million and unlock a vast, long term impact of over £4.3bn to Edinburgh’s economy.*

The announcement follows the recent news that CityFibre has raised £1.12 billion of debt to fund the first part of its £2.5 billion investment plan to provide wholesale full fibre access to at least 20% of the UK market. The project is one of the biggest single investments ever made in the UK’s digital infrastructure.

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive at CityFibre said: “Amey has a formidable reputation in the sector and we are delighted to have them onboard for our flagship Gigabit City rollout in Edinburgh. This project represents a long, stable, city-wide build that will enable Amey to resource confidently and deliver at pace. This is expected to be the start of our partnership and that it will soon expand to cover further city builds across the country.”

Andy Milner, Chief Executive at Amey said: “We’re delighted that CityFibre has chosen Amey to transform the broadband provision in Edinburgh. As a trusted provider of utility services, we’re looking forward to working with CityFibre on this flagship project to deliver a service that benefits local residents and in turn helps Edinburgh become a truly intelligently connected city.

”Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron, Housing and Economy Vice Convener, said: “Becoming a globally competitive digital city, and the Data Capital of Europe is a key priority of Edinburgh’s Economy Strategy.

“This continuing investment will see more Edinburgh citizens experience a transformation of their online world at home. For the wider Edinburgh economy, this brings increased productivity, employment opportunities, innovation and helps facilitate and underpins delivery of our Economy Strategy. 

“As this project progresses we will work with CityFibre to minimise any disruption to residents and businesses.”

CityFibre’s full national rollout to 5 million homes will see construction contracts awarded for the installation of over 50,000 km of cable and the construction of over 150 buildings to house the network equipment. At its peak, CityFibre expects to connect 125,000 homes a month. CityFibre’s commitment to full-city deployments provides certainty and stability to partners with committed work over several years.

As well as connecting homes, CityFibre’s open-access, full fibre, city-wide networks are designed to serve all the needs of the city; including businesses and public sector locations and providing the essential fibre infrastructure for mobile backhaul and 5G small cells.

* Regeneris Report: The Economic Impact of Full Fibre Infrastructure in 100 UK Towns and Cities

CityFibre’s £100m investment in the project includes network construction and other costs including the provision of active equipment

CityFibre’s existing 150km network in Edinburgh was constructed in less than a year.

It currently serves over 320 schools as well as libraries, community centres and administrative facilities of Edinburgh City Council.

Hundreds of businesses also receive next generation broadband speeds over the network.

About CityFibre

CityFibre is the UK’s leading alternative provider of wholesale full fibre network infrastructure. With major fibre infrastructure projects across 51 towns and cities throughout the UK, we provide a portfolio of active and dark fibre services to our customers which include service integrators, enterprise and consumer service providers, local authorities and mobile operators.

CityFibre has recently partnered with Vodafone to bring ultrafast Gigabit-capable full fibre broadband to up to one million UK homes and businesses by 2021 and is targeting five million by 2025. This commitment has been reinforced by a £2.5bn investment programme which identifies 37 towns and cities which are primed for FTTP expansion.

CityFibre is based in London, United Kingdom, and is privately owned by a consortium of Antin Infrastructure Partners and West Street Infrastructure Partners.

 

About Amey

Amey already delivers several services across Scotland, including: waste and clean water services for Scottish Water, delivering facilities management in Edinburgh schools, ensuring homes and business are supplied with power and managing and maintaining the roads that keep Scotland connected.

Amey has initially been awarded a contract worth £14m as part of CityFibre’s plan to invest in the network

This recent move will see the company increase it’s recruitment drive. If you are interested in applying for a role and finding out more please visit https://www.amey.co.uk/cityfibre/

Amey, with a turnover of £2.2bn, employs 20,000 people internationally with a focus on the UK, but with businesses in Australia and America.

Our aim is to make the world a better place to live, work and travel. Designing, building, maintaining and investing in the UK’s services and infrastructure in partnership with our clients.

This means keeping core services running smoothly across the country: utilities, transport, engineering, justice, defence, environmental and waste services, and facilities management. These are underpinned by our leading consulting and asset management capabilities, which allow us to offer standalone or integrated service solutions to a range of clients.

Amey is owned by Ferrovial. They are one of the world’s leading infrastructure management and investment companies. Ferrovial has more than 96,000 employees and a presence in over 15 countries. It is a member of Spain’s blue-chip IBEX 35 index and is also included in prestigious sustainability indices such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good. Ferrovial’s activities focus on four business sectors: construction, airports, toll roads and services. Amey is part of the Services division.

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